If the state of Virginia — once the heart of the confederacy, and the bustling, brutal headquarters of the slave trade — can change so dramatically that it helps elect a black man into the White House…

If the nation that once, in some states, “owned” people with brown skin as property…

If a sea of faces of every race, can pack Chicago’s Grant Park and cheer as an African American family appears on the stage…

If masses of Americans can truly believe that a man with African heritage has the vision and intelligence to solve our grave economic crisis…

Then America has absolutely changed for the better.  And that has profound power for YOU as an individual.

For me, as I bawled tears of Bliss most of Tuesday night and all day Wednesday, I realized that the word change has new meaning for us as individuals.  Because, if our nation can change so dramatically, then each of us can find the strength within to change for the better.

That means abandoning bad habits like smoking, procrastinating, eating junk food, or not living up to your potential.

That means reaching deep down and pulling out a hefty dose of discipline to stick with your plan and finish what you start.  That could be a book you’re writing, the class you’re taking, the relationship you’re in, or the exercise regimen that you’re griping about.

That means finding a new mental trick to help you change.

For me, if discipline wanes or negative thoughts creep, all I have to do is think, “Barack” or look at his picture on the cover of Time magazine here on my desk.  The power of HIM and what he’s achieving around the world, is fueling a new ME.

I hope that our president-elect can inspire you as well.

So today, Find Your Daily Bliss by exploring how America’s change for the better… can inspire your change to be your best.

Posted: November 8th, 2008 under The Bliss Report.
Comments: 3

Posted: November 8th, 2008 under The Bliss Report.
Comments: none

Today, mixed-race children can look up and KNOW that they can be and do anything.  All children, of every race, can do this.  But for children with a white parent and a black parent, his ascent to the most powerful position on the planet has special meaning.

I speak from the perspective of a biracial woman who grew up — half black, half white — with no examples of successful people who shared my exact heritage.

Never seeing anyone like myself made me feel alone, alien. No other girls had tight corkscrew curls that refused to “feather” like Farrah Fawcett’s popular hairstyle. I knew no other kids who had one parent with brown skin and one parent with white skin.

Even Mariah Carey was mum about her mixed-race heritage. Suddenly, though, in the 1990s, she and Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods and others, made it cool and commonplace to be biracial — and proud of it.

And the 2000 Census finally allowed us to pick as many races as applied (as opposed to one only in prior years). The result? About 7 million mixed-race folks are living amongst us.  And right now, interracial births are the fastest growing birth rate in our country.

That’s why I felt such profound pride and excitement the first time I witnessed Barack Obama’s passion and eloquence — when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention for the Kerry/Edwards campaign.  I jumped up and down with the thrill of a leader I could believe in.  I don’t even know if I knew he was biracial at that point.

And THAT’s the point.  He is a phenomenal HUMAN.  Yes, it’s tremendously affirming to mixed-race people that he’s “like us.”  But it’s all the more affirming to every person on the planet that he’s an amazing visionary whose race has little to do with his desire and ability to HELP everyone.

At the same time, his courage, pride and popularity obliterate the “tragic mulatto” stereotype.  Sadly, many biracial people still feel shamed into silence, or compelled to conform to one race or the other, because they’ve been taunted or rejected for being different. Why? Because American race-mixing began during slavery, when plantation owners raped African captives then enslaved their own children… and because interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states until 1967. All that made it taboo to talk about it or feel proud. Imagine the shame of the 50-year-old woman I interviewed, who said her interracial family prohibited conversation about race as she was growing up! Can you imagine ignoring such an integral part of who you are? Or navigating the treacherous terrain of color and culture, as a child, with no guidance on how to avoid, or recover from, psyche-scarring land mines?

The road may still be bumpy for some.  But now — especially children — we can all look up to the shining example of Barack Obama.  And we can celebrate ourselves—and the fact that our personal potential is infinite.

Find Your Daily Bliss today, by emulating Barack Obama’s success as a celebration of all that YOU can be!

Posted: November 8th, 2008 under The Bliss Report.
Comments: none

Half-breed?  Mulatto?  Mutt?  Zebra?  Black, white, other? Biracial?  Multiracial?

Today, just call me BLISSFUL.

Because President Elect Barack Obama is standing in the global spotlight as a shining example of a life purpose and passion that we share.

When he was born to a white mother and a Kenyan father in August of 1961, interracial marriage was still illegal in 16 states.  Then, in June 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving vs. Virginia that we have the right to love and marry any person of any race.   A month later, I was born to a white man and a black woman.  It was the Summer of Love, and I became a symbol of the racial unity that America would need to quell the race riots exploding across the country.

In college, as racial strife plagued the University of Michigan campus, I heard my calling — to write and speak about race in a way that promotes human harmony.  I wrote my master’s thesis on race mixing in America at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York.  As the race relations reporter at The Detroit News, I became the race relations reporter; my articles were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Then I wrote books with biracial characters, to bust that “tragic mulatto” stereotype that said folks like me are confused, depressed, pathetic.  White Chocolate, Dark Secret, Twilight (with Billy Dee Williams) all wrote a new story into contemporary American literature.  A story that says love is colorblind, that the nearly 7 million mixed-race Americans like myself are here to heal and unite everyone for a common good.

And that’s what President Elect Barack Obama is doing. On one level, he’s showing that the conversation is over.  If Virginia — once the heart of the confederacy and the slave trade — and the rest of America can vote him into the White House, then hearts and minds have changed so much that the conversation is indeed over.

But it’s not, really.  The other day, I saw a skinhead.  Outraged people have written nasty things on news blogs.  Not everybody is feelin’ the Bliss of Barack.

However, the overwhelming majority of Americans, and fellow citizens on this planet called Earth, are now Finding Our Daily Bliss every time we see his beautiful face or hear his intelligent, dignified and eloquent voice.

But I don’t love Barack Obama because he’s biracial. In him I see a mirror of my passion for life, for making a difference, for integrity, intelligence and wholesome values. He wows us with the content of his character, not the color of his skin, to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And that’s the point. Barack Obama proves we should move away from labels. Rather than focus on black, white, biracial or other racial descriptives, his acceptance and popularity prove that America is ready to endorse leadership that is intelligent, passionate, responsible, genuine. And those characteristics are colorblind.

Posted: November 8th, 2008 under The Bliss Report.
Comments: none

The world is celebrating tonight.

Positive change is happening in our country right now.

I’m asserting that we use this victory as a personal call to action — to  be our best in every way.

No more excuses.  Anything is possible.  For America.  And for you.

Stop procrastinating.  Stop the negative, self-defeating thoughts and behavior.

Look to this amazing man who rose out of Chicago to excite our nation to embark on a glorious journey of change.

Use the example of President-Elect Barack Obama’s phenomenal success — to Find Your Daily Bliss in a way that creates your best life, and ushers your dreams into reality.

CELEBRATE!

Posted: November 5th, 2008 under The Bliss Report.
Comments: none